Budget watchdog's barbs? These are not 'barbs'. Mr. Page works for the public and it is his duty to inform the public when the Harper government is blowing smoke. Flaherty should not be shrugging anything off.

Canada's budget watchdog says Ottawa is fiscally off track, but Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was having none of it as he emerged Thursday from budget consultations in Kamloops. In his most recent critique, Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page says the government has yet to unveil a strategy for the deep cuts it needs to achieve to balance the budget in five years.

Over the next five years, Ottawa wants to cut departmental operating budgets by $6.8 billion. But Page, who has the task of providing a non-partisan, independentanalysis of the government's budget and spending, said the math doesn't add up.